The 992 generation isn't all technology -- Porsche had a little fun too

By
Robin Warner

Dec 17, 2018

I did not drive the 2020 Porsche 911 Carrera S. I did, however, ride shotgun for a couple of hot laps around the Hockenheimring outside of Stuttgart, Germany, a track that sometimes hosts Formula 1. My driver, Andreas Patzelt, works as a development engineer and also races a Porsche in the VLN series around the Nurburgring, A shoe, you could say -- a hot one, even.

With just a smidge of encouragement, Patzelt matted the gas, broke late and drifted around just about every tight corner of the track, showing off either his impressive balancing skills or the balance of the 992 chassis or both. He initiated the drifts with the brakes, rotating the car on corner entry, not at the exit by walloping the gas -- though he did that too to keep the drift going. Based on the ease Patzelt did that and how frequently, I can only conclude that the electric brake booster, often called EBB, works well.

EBB uses an electric motor driven pump to assist pushing brake fluid in the master cylinder to the calipers, which eliminates the need for a mechanical vacuum pump. EBB allowed engineers to reduce the pedal travel, drop the force required to reach maximum deceleration and make response and control more precise for easy modulation from the driver. Of course, this also allows for more brake control independent of the driver, read automation, and paves a smoother path for hybridization as well. And it’s just one of a long list of systems either introduced or updated on the latest 911.

More than anything, this keeps the 911 relevant. Porsche’s sports car icon is now 55 years old and without lots of effort to avoid it, could find itself in a 55-and-older only community. If you’re an air-cooled purist, this is probably going to be bothersome as this car does take another step away from that era, but the rest of us should breathe a sigh of relief that even in these transient times in the Industry, the 911 remains.

The 2020 Porsche 911 Carrera S lapping the HockenheimRing

But let’s step away from electronics for a moment. The 992 starts with a 5 percent lighter body-in-white -- the bare chassis -- weighing about 530 pounds. Engineers did this with more extensive use of aluminum alloy, making up most of the body and a good chunk of the structure. Steel made up 63 percent of the 991 chassis; for the 992, it’s 30 percent. Included in that percentage, the A and B pillars as well as side roof frame and components directly around the passenger cell are ultra-high-strength steel, giving the 992 5 percent more torsional rigidity than the 991.

And the Carrera S body wrapped around that structure is 1.8 inches wider than before, now 72.9 inches, which is the width of the 991 generation GTS and the Carrera 4S. The 992 Carrera 4S width is unchanged. The 992 is also 0.8 inch longer. Wheel wells grew as well to fit 20-inch wheels in front and 21 inches in back, 8.5 and 11.5 inches wide, respectively. Staggering the wheel diameter is a first for the 911 Carrera S, and they look sharp, especially the optional forged Exclusive Carrera Series wheels.

Behind the 21-inch wheels is an engine. With 3.0-liters of displacement and two new Borg-Warner turbochargers, the flat-six peak power output is up 29, now 443 SAE hp at 6,500 rpm. And 22 more lb-ft puts the peak at 390 produced between 2,300 and 5,000 rpm, giving the newest lump a broad range to work with if you want to, I don’t know, drift around the Hockenheimring. Bore, stroke and displacement remain the same in the 992, but the engine uses a more advanced VarioCam valve system (variable timing and lift), bigger turbos with electric wastegates, larger intercoolers and piezo fuel injectors.

Getting sideways in the 2020 Porsche 911 Carrera S is easy, especially on a wet autocross course in Germany

Piezo is short for Piezoelectric, and without getting into the science behind it, these injectors can open and close much faster than conventional units. As a result, each cylinder actually gets five mini shots of fuel sprayed into the cylinder each cycle, which allows for a more precise and complete burn during the power stroke. This allows both more power and better fuel economy.

A new eight-speed PDK, dual-clutch transmission, helps as well, with a taller eighth gear than the last gen’s top, seventh gear. The new PDK’s first seven gears are shorter, which helps improve the Carrera S’s 0-62 mph time by 0.4 second, now 3.5. The 4S is better still, by a tenth, now 3.4 seconds. Fuel economy is not yet announced, but expect something similar or a smidge better than the 2019 911 Carrera S and 4S at 22 city (21 for the 4S) 28 highway and 24 combined.

Design-wise, the latest 911 looks clean, with evolutionary changes throughout. The headlights, now LED, have a distinctive glow and Porsche offers optional LED headlights called Matrix LED, which add features like dynamic cornering lights (lights move as you turn the wheel) and other features. Beneath all LEDs are front flaps that open and close automatically at different speeds. When open they provide cooling air to needed components and additionally offer a little downforce. If the driver puts the Carrera S in sport or sport plus driving mode, they stay open. When closed, the 911 slips through the air better, which is why they’re usually closed at interstate speeds.

In back, the adaptive rear spoiler is much bigger than the 991 version and automatically lifts at 56 mph, but it raises early if the computer deems it necessary as there are cooling advantages to doing so. Just beneath the spoiler is a horizontal light bar that connects the two taillights with a red glow. And resting just under the rear windshield are two new vertical, centrally located brake lights.

A look inside the 2020 Porsche 911 Carrera S

Inside, Porsche likens the latest interior to 1970s-era, G-series versions of the car and, again, it’s clean and more minimalist than before, but also now filled with tech. Gone are the five circles that make up the instrument panel, replaced with a tachometer, still in the center, and two 7-inch screens on either side, like the Panamera. The screens are customizable in terms of the information displayed. Screens replacing gauges is happening everywhere, so it’s no surprise, but this is a bigger step away from the traditional sports car than I’m comfortable with. Perhaps I just aged myself.

Keeping up the theme, the main touchscreen in the center console increases to 10.9 inches, from 7, which is now center stage for what Porsche calls Advanced Cockpit. This includes wireless Apple CarPlay, USB, SD and Wi-Fi interfaces and all sorts of “connected” systems to listen to online radio and perform Google searches on navigation maps. You know, sports car stuff.

Beyond the infotainment, the latest 911 includes available lane keep assist, lane change assist and night vision and a standard system called wet mode. Wet mode slows down the throttle map and speeds up response from traction and stability control systems -- that’s pretty normal. What’s clever about this system is that acoustic sensors on the back side of both front wheels “hear” water splashing in the wheel well and alert the driver of a wet road and turn on some of the system automatically.

And this is where I get nervous. Porsche builds sports cars. But more and more, the Stuttgart company builds luxurious sports cars. And the 992 has more luxury and convenience than any 911 before it. Between that and added systems to keep up with the latest regulations around the world, the 992 Carrera S is more than 150 pounds heavier than the 991, despite the lighter body-in-white. And, so far at least, there is no manual Porsche 911. Porsche promises a manual-equipped Carrera S will appear soon, but that’s all we know now.

A look inside the 2020 Porsche 911 Carrera S

Maybe it’s all fine and I’m just paranoid. After all, the Carrera S is five seconds a lap faster around the Nurburgring than the last-gen car, needing just seven minutes and 25 seconds to complete a circuit. And, again, Porsche had to do a lot of things to keep the car road legal across the world. Really, everything looks fine and dandy now, I just don’t want to see Porsche drift away from its pure sports car roots. Let’s keep the drifting to hairpins, please.

The 2020 Porsche 911 Carrera S and 4S have the base prices, including delivery, of $114,250 and $121,650 respectively, a few grand above the outgoing model. We expect that price increase trend to continue as more iterations of the 911 are revealed. With all the new technology, we can't wait to let you know how it feels behind the wheel.

This is the 2020 Porsche 911 Carrera S front suspension, the struts attached to the anti-roll bar is what activates the Porsche Dynamic Chassis Control system. The shocks are adaptive and called Porsche Active Stability Management. You also see half shafts because this is a Carrera 4S suspension

The 2020 Porsche 911 Carrera S rear suspension. Not as complicated as the front. Dominated by 11.5 wide wheels and 305/30 R21 tires

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